Construction Equipment Guide
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Fort Washington, PA 19034
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Tue May 16, 2023 - West Edition #11
The 2023-25 state transportation budget, as proposed by House Transportation Committee Chair Jake Fey (D-Tacoma), meets a key priority of the AGC by keeping major projects currently under way on track, like the Spokane North/South Freeway and the Puget Sound Gateway.
This budget restores these key projects and keeps them on schedule:
Overall, the House budget proposal provides $5.67 billion for highway improvements and preservation. These budget funds will be used to implement last year's Move Ahead Washington package (almost $17 billion) over a 16-year period, as well as projects from the 2015 Connecting Washington package ($16 billion investment), also over a 16-year period.
"Many projects were delayed several years," said Fey. "It makes sense to not dismantle these project teams but to keep the projects on schedule and we have the financial resources to do so. This year, the House Democrats and House Republicans worked side-by-side on this budget. I believe there will be bipartisan support."
Funding for preliminary engineering, rights-of-way acquisition and early construction for the Move Ahead Washington (MAW) projects include (with amounts shown from the MAW, unless noted otherwise):
Construction activity under the Connecting Washington (CW) program enacted by the Legislature in 2015 is expected to peak in the upcoming fiscal biennium. Total spending on capital highway improvement and preservation projects from the package is expected to exceed $3.1 billion, including:
The House Chair's proposal fully funds the fish passage barrier corrections as proposed by the Department of Transportation (DOT), at more than $1 billion (including $378.1M in federal funds), relating to the compliance with the federal injunction, for the 2023-25 period. The proposal also funds efforts to complete culvert inventories for counties.
The proposal also assumes $921 million from the Climate Commitment Act (CCA), the state's carbon-pricing program passed in 2021. This piece of legislation sets a statewide cap on greenhouse gas emissions that gradually lessen over time, with a goal of decarbonization by 2050. Washington had its first CCA auction in late February, funding decarbonization strategies across the transportation sector, including:
Move Ahead Washington programmed: $723M:
Additional transfer to Carbon Emissions Reduction Account: $198M
Finally, the bill provides funding to implement AGC-backed legislation, SB 5272, to allow speed safety cameras to improve the safety of workers in WSDOT work zones.